Attorney General Greg Abbott slammed federal court-proposed changes to the state’s congressional map in a legal filing Friday, claiming the court overstepped its bounds, and accused it of “undermining the democratic process.”The three-judge panel, which oversaw a key redistricting trial in San Antonio, proposed significant changes to the Legislature’s congressional redistricting plan that could give Democrats another three congressional seats and put another three seats in play.

“A court’s job is to apply the law, not to make policy,” lawyers for the state wrote in their filing. “A federal court lacks constitutional authority to interfere with the expressed will of the state Legislature unless it is compelled to remedy a specific, identifiable violation of law.”

The filing comes on the heels of Abbott’s latest legal volley, which was launched Wednesday when he asked the San Antonio federal court to stay the implementation of its now finalized changes to the Texas House and Senate maps. Abbott also said that he would ask for the court to stay its congressional plan if it is not substantially changed.

If the judges refuse, Abbott said, he’ll take the fight to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The new move comes as Republicans continue to tally the political damage from the court’s redistricting maps for the Texas House and Senate, which preserved a Democratic senator’s seat in Fort Worth and could put an additional six to 10 Texas House seats into play, including that of State Rep. Aaron Peña, R-Edinburg, who said Thursday he would not seek re-election.

Lauren Bean, a spokeswoman for Abbott, said, “We cannot allow any map that so grossly misapplies federal law and continues a trend of inappropriately venturing into political policy-making to move forward unchallenged.”

The state’s redistricting plans have come under fire from two federal panels — one in Washington and the other in San Antonio — and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. Both three-judge panels contain two judges appointed by Republican presidents.

The crux of the dispute is whether the Legislature created enough majority-minority districts to reflect the state’s minority-driven population boom. Ninety percent of the state’s population growth over the last decade came from minority populations but only one of the state’s four new congressional districts were designed to elect minority candidates, who are typically Democrats.

The GOP-dominated redistricting plan for the Texas House also reduced the number of opportunity districts for minority representation by combining Houston-area Democratic state Reps. Scott Hochberg and Hubert Vo into the same district. The court’s interim map undid the combination.